NEW DELHI: Paris Olympics bronze medallist Aman Sehrawat will not be able to defend his men's 57kg category title at the forthcoming Zagreb Open ranking series tournament next week, as the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) failed to secure requisite clearance for the event from the sports ministry due to its inexplicable suspension since Dec 2023.
And it's not solely Sehrawat who has been denied the opportunity to compete at the season's first ranking series meet, which carries vital ranking points for seedings at the senior World wrestling championships, scheduled to be held later this year.
Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW!Other Indian men and women freestyle and greco-roman wrestlers, too, have been compelled to forgo yet another prestigious championship because the ministry has declined to grant affiliation to an elected body in WFI, which has the recognition from the sport's world governing body – UWW.
Sanjay Singh was duly elected the WFI president more than a year back after decisively defeating govt-backed candidate Anita Sheoran.
According to sources, the WFI waited for the ministry's authorisation for the Feb 5-9 event in Croatia's capital despite submitting entries to the organisers well in advance, as well as reminding the Sports Authority of India (SAI) about the same on multiple occasions. However, the clearance hadn't materialised as of Thursday evening.
"The trip to Zagreb has been called off. There's no time remaining to process anything. You have a weekend approaching (Feb 1-2) and the Croatian embassy in Delhi will be closed. The wrestlers were scheduled to depart on Monday evening for the event commencing on Wednesday. You cannot arrange everything in just one day (Friday, Jan 31). The team's participation has been withdrawn since the federation hasn't received confirmation from the SAI. The wrestlers have been notified about this," a WFI official said.
Earlier, too, the wrestlers had missed participating in two important invitational tournaments in Belarus and Egypt in Nov-Dec last year after the SAI refused to clear the teams owing to the WFI's continued derecognition.
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